Now I’m a teacher by my first trade, and a tech author second.  I’ve been spending the last few years teaching Literacy and Numeracy to the long-term unemployed who need better skills and qualifications in order to be able to get back into the workplace, or to those people who are already employed and need qualifications to progress their careers.  I’m very interested then in the use of technology as an educational aid and, if you’re interested, you can read an essay I wrote on the subject for my teaching qualification here where I talked about some of the issues and barriers for the use of technology in the classroom, including the legal, physical and mental barriers that some people need to overcome.

It’s always with great interest then that I read news stories about how the latest technology is being used in classrooms.  In the last year I’ve seen schools, mostly in the US, giving iPads to each student and writing custom apps for the platform to help improve learning in class; one particularly interesting app was using the tablet’s accelerometer with a special app that helped the students simulate earthquakes.  I’ve also seen the use of videoconferencing to enable schools to share teachers with specific expertise and to bring in experts from the worlds of business, science and society.

Why is it then, six years after the launch of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project that intended to create laptops for developing countries for only $99 that we don’t have schools rolling out laptops, netbooks or tablets to their students every year?  From the perspective of the technology companies this is an enormous market and opportunity; indeed Bloomberg are reporting today that Apple are bidding to sell 15 million iPads to schools in Turkey.

The single biggest barrier however is still price.  In order to make mobile devices that will appeal to the consumer and trample upon the competition, companies are still going for quality, brushed metals, high quality plastics and IPS panel screens.  What they’re not focusing on is the schools and colleges mass market where what’s required is ruggedness and affordability; after all these machines will be designed to only be used in educational establishments for their purposes.

Next week does see the launch of a new affordable Android tablet, the affectionately named (for anyone of a certain age in the UK anyway) AndyPad.  Starting at just £129 this is finally approaching the price levels that technology needs to be at to appeal to the huge volumes and limited budgets of schools worldwide, and of course some of the money can be saved elsewhere in providing cheaper eBooks instead of the traditional paper copies (while being more environmentally friendly into the bargain).

The fact remains though that back in 2005 when Nicholas Negroponte announced his plans to create a $99 educational laptop for the developing world the whole world got very excited.  Then companies like Microsoft decided that they wanted a piece of the action, muscled in and muddied the whole situation.  Now we don’t have any $99 laptops and there’s no immediate prospect that this will change.

It’s worth noting that some smaller companies have tried to release $99 tablets, certainly here in the UK, and all have so far been rubbish.  What must be needed then is the technological know-how and the manufacturing clout of a big name player.  Could Apple make a $99 iPad?  The company certainly makes enough money to subsidise such a device and it would sell in enormous volumes.  How economical that would be to a company with shareholders to pay though is up to Apple’s board to decide.

So I find it a pity that in what might turn out to be the ‘golden age’ of mobile computing that children are still being left out, especially the millions of them on low household incomes who still don’t have a computer at home.  It’s time I think for the technology companies to step up to this challenge and prove that $99 can still be achieved for the benefit of everyone.

Scientists and researchers have been saying for several years now that we’re getting too much email.  They began saying this when the Blackberry was gaining popularity and more and more people suddenly began using email on the move.  The complaint then was that we were all expected to be able to answer work email outside of work hours.  This wasn’t giving people adequate time to switch off from their daily lives and relax in their own private time.

The Blackberry soon became known as the ‘Crackberry’ as people became addicted to the email facility on the handsets.  Now though the situation has spread like an epidemic, not only to smartphones, but also to other connected devices such as tablets and netbooks.  Questions will need to be asked again though if we’re not spending too much time addicted to email (and other forms of messaging) and if it isn’t having a negative effect on our lives, and on society, that could begin to cause real social problems if left unchecked.

I was down the pub the other evening with a friend.  We sat down with our drinks and he spent a few minutes checking Facebook on his smartphone, and sending a few messages.  With nobody to talk to for a while I dived into my email.  Here we were, probably looking like two incredibly unfortunate individuals, not talking to each other or anyone else but instead locked to our phones, heads down and concentrating.  This only lasted for a few minutes fortunately and then we put them away.

It’s not an unusual experience though by any stretch of the imagination.  Wherever you go in modern daily life you’ll see exactly the same thing.  Everywhere there will be people checking their smartphones, as if the world has moved on considerably in the five minutes since they last checked it.

I will admit to being an email twitcher on my phone.  I’ll go and visit a friend but the phone will be out and all too all too often I’ll flick it on and do a quick email check.  This is despite the facts that the phone is set to automatically check for email every fifteen minutes and I don’t get that many exciting or interesting work or social emails every day anyway.  It’s a problem, and I know it.  I find myself feeling embarrassed that I clearly have a stronger connection to my email than I do to the person I’m visiting.

But what are the emails we’re all receiving and are they really that important anyway?  If I examine my own emails, I’ll wake up every day to a few Google alerts (for my work here) and emails from Groupon and perhaps some shopping websites telling me about offers.  I’ve long since switched off from the barrage of social networking emails inviting me to play this, or join that on Facebook and telling me that @person mentioned me on Twitter.

I’m lucky then, as a great many people will still be receiving five or six emails a day from Facebook.  Every one of them reminding them that they haven’t logged into their Facebook account and interacted with their friends in, oh, must have been at least half an hour.  That’s all the shopping emails are like too.  I’m hardly likely to forget that Debenhams exist on the high street and only really want to know when they’ve got a sale going on that’s relevant to me.  Alas this means I have to sign up for a barrage of emails that aren’t relevant to me in the slightest.

In recent days I’ve finally had enough and have been undergoing a cull, hitting unsubscribe on many of these emails.  I know though that it’s only a matter of time before more companies tempt me to sign up for email alerts, or that I wake up one morning and don’t feel there are enough emails there (an odd feeling that one) so I’ll go and sign up for another.

It should come as no surprise to you then that all of these companies hire psychologists to advise them on things exactly like this.  Email is becoming a major social problem, especially since they started playing with our heads to get our attention and to get us hooked.

It would be interesting to hear how many emails you receive every day, let us know in the comments.  Of that total try to answer these if you can.  How many are from companies marketing themselves, how many are from social networks, how many are from work (and outside of work hours) and, crucially, how many of them are actually relevant or important?

Some specs have not been revealed yet. We do not know the MHz of the cpu, the size of the internal hard drive or the RAM. Acer’s Chromebook starts at $349, Samsung’s at $429, which is pricey if you compare it to other netbook offers.

But hardware or appearance is not the thing that sets the netbook aside from other offerings. It is that it ships with Chrome OS, Google’s attempt to get a foothold in the operating system market.

Instead of writing a long article about Chrome OS’ advantages and disadvantages, I though it would be nice to post a top 5 list instead. The top 5 things that get me excited, and the top 5 things that disappoint.

Top 5

• Security – Google has designed Chrome OS with security in mind, just like they did when they designed the Chrome browser. Applications run sandboxed which means that malware can only affect what’s inside the sandbox, and not something that’s outside of it. While it may affect the browser, it cannot affect the underlying operating system. That is, unless the sandbox gets penetrated. The user home directory furthermore is encrypted by default which means that temporary Internet files, cookies and other user related data are not accessibly by anyone else. [reference].

  Chromebook users furthermore get options to restore a previous “working” version of the operating system, and automatic integrity checks during boot time to verify that files have not been manipulated.

• Guest Mode – If you are a Chrome OS user, you can access all your personal data and files on any device running Chrome OS as long as the device has an active Internet connection.
• Cloud Storage – This has some advantages, like accessibility of your personal data on all devices running Chrome Os.
• Fast Boot – It takes less than ten seconds from booting Chrome OS to having it fully operational.
• Ease of Use – If you know how to operate a web browser, you know how to operate Chrome OS.

Flop 5

• Cloud Storage – With all the news regarding Cloud storage break-ins, security issues and data loss, it may not sound like a good idea to rely primarily on the cloud.
• Compatibility – With Chrome OS, you cannot run your Windows applications directly. Google’s solution is virtualization so that you can run those applications. It is however not clear how this is handled at this point in time, and how users can get their applications to run on the Chromebook.
• Google Account link – Your Chrome Os account is linked to a Google account. Google may collect even more information about you this way, even if you use a fake Google account just for the Chromebook.
• Less choice: Would you buy an operating system where you had to use the default browser? Yes, you may be able to run Firefox or Opera in a virtual machine but that again does not sound overly comfortable, considering that this will have an impact on performance.
• Decent Internet connection – You will need a decent Internet connection to get most out of the device. You get offline access to some of your files and documents, but for the majority of things, you will need a decent Internet connection.

I for one will not buy a Chromebook at this point in time. I’d like to play around with one though, to experience it first hand. What’s your take on this?

So if you’re thinking of buying a new PC, the question to ask yourself now is should you really bother?

Windows Vista caused no end of problems when it was launched back in 2006 and forced many people who were using it to upgrade to better and faster hardware just to get it to work.  With Windows 7 Microsoft fixed all the problems and gave us an operating system that would work happily, though a little slowly on a 1.6GHz Atom processor.

We can see now that with Windows 8 not only is the bar being lowered ever further when it comes to performance, but that the OS will be giving us more.

Traditionally if you wanted an operating system that would run efficiently on older hardware you had only one choice, GNU/Linux, but it’s now clear that this is a market that Microsoft are going after, and going after agressively.

It’s not that Microsoft want to attack Linux, that’s probably the last thing on their minds.  It’s clear that low-power processing is where the computing market is going and for most every day computing tasks these devices are usually perfectly adequate.  Microsoft have simply seen which way the wind is blowing and, in an uncharacteristic display of flexibility and innovation, have decided to jump aboard the bandwagon.

So where does this leave everyone with a PC at home?  Should you indeed think about buying a new PC at all when the times comes to replace yours?

There are different options for this.  The first is that if you are a PC gamer the answer remains a resolute yes as the latest games will still demand Core i5 overclocked power to run effectively.  If you’re not a gamer though then you could easily find that Windows 8 is even faster and more responsive on your existing computer hardware than Windows 7 (though we have yet to see any actual performance benchmarks).

The third and most compelling reason is that the whole tablet market is evolving still and by the time Windows 8 launches in all its tablet glory we’ll be looking at a whole broad range of innovative devices, some with one screen, some with two, some like a book, laptop, netbook or tablet, some with keyboards, flip down, fold out, and some without, that there will undoubtedly be a new way to interact with our computers that suits us!  Frankly, this one has been a long time coming and it’s about damn time.

When Windows 8 launches the world will be more than used to tapping away at a keyboard that’s connected to a large box in a corner of the room, or even in it’s own room, that requires it’s own piece of furniture and that, frankly, is becoming more and more loathed for this very reason year on year.

If you’re planning on buying yourself a new PC, or even a new laptop in the coming year my advice would be to hold fire and wait.  Before the end of this year we’ll see what Microsoft will really have to offer us with the next version of Windows and they’re certain to demonstrate the OS running on a wide variety of form factors.  There are exciting times ahead and it’s now just not the right year to buy a new PC.

After plenty of use on this machine, I thought I should report back on the hardware and the OS so that anyone looking for a new netbook might be swayed to the System 76 side.

Specs

Although not a powerhouse, the Starling performs very well. The default machine specs look like:

• Display: 10.1″ HD WSVGA Super Clear Ultra-Bright LED backlit (1024 x 600)
• Processor: Intel Atom 1.66 GHz with hyperthreading
• Graphics: Intel GMA 3100 graphics
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Storage: 250 GB (upgradable with solid state options)
• Audio Output: Intel High Definition Audio
• Networking: LAN (10/100), WiFi
• Wireless: 802.11 bgn
• Ports: VGA, 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, SD Reader
• Camera: Built-In 0.3 MP Webcam
• Security: Kensington® Lock
• Power Management: Suspend & Hibernate
• Battery: includes one 3 Cell Lithium Ion
• AC Adapter: includes one AC adapter
• Dimensions: 10.47″ x 7.28″ x 0.72~1.0″ (WxDxH)
• Weight: 2.0 lbs.
• Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook edition

So even by today’s standards, this netbook packs some power.

Interface

The user interface is the Ubuntu Unity interface (that which will grace all of Ubuntu Linux starting with 11.04). To be honest, Unity is one of the best netbook interfaces I have ever used. Not only does it make the small screen space incredibly efficient, it also operates with a small footprint, so the machine seems even faster than its specs would indicate.

And Unity has an incredibly low learning curve. Anyone could hop onto the Unity and very quickly be up to speed.

The apps

Ubuntu Unity ships with all of the apps you will need to have a fully-functioning, mobile office. And, since the Starling arrives with a built-in webcam, you will enjoy the Linux Cheese application. You will also find all of the standard applications associated with a Ubuntu installation. Of course, if you don’t find what you need…there is always the Ubuntu Software Center.

Overall impression

The thing that surprised me most was the keyboard on the Starling. I have grown accustomed to the netbook keyboards feeling more like toys than real hardware. Not the case with the System 76 machine. This keyboard feels real, feels solid, and feel like you could type a novel on it without feeling that old familiar strain in the wrists and fingers.

The screen is another big plus on the Starling. Although the display isn’t the largest I have seen on a netbook, it certainly was one of the sharpest I have seen in a long time.

But ultimately, at least for me, it was the combination of the snappy hardware and the Ubuntu Unity interface that really made this netbook stand out. If you are looking for a very portable machine, that will stand the rigors of mobility, and is as flexible as the average Linux operating system, the System 76 Starling is the right netbook for you.

Price of entry – $385.00.

Some Ghacks readers may remember Firefox collections, which are user generated add-on compilations.

Firefox user Nawoa recently created a netbook optimization kit collection, which consists of ten Firefox add-ons to optimize Firefox for netbook usage.

Even better is the fact that instructions are included for each add-on in the collection. These aid the user in configuring them the intended way.

netbook optimization kit

The add-ons of the collection can be divided into two groups: Add-ons that change the appearance of Firefox, mostly to reduce the screen space requirements of Firefox toolbars and menus, and additional add-ons that add functionality to the browser.

In the first group, add-ons are listed to control the presence of the titlebar and statusbar, to reduce the size of the menu, to combine the location bar and search bar, to combine progress bar and address bar, and to add new toolbar buttons that offer additional functionality on the Firefox toolbar, including the ability to quickly toggle image and embedded content loading.

The second group consists of an adblocker to speed up loading times, url tooltips to offer an alternative way to check urls in the browser (without statusbar), an add-on that disables backspace navigation, an add-on that scrolls the pages smoothly when scrolling and a menu editor to remove or add menus from the web browser.

The provided add-ons are helpful in reducing the screen size requirements of the web browser. In addition to that, they offer several features that improve the overall experience of the user.

The explanations by Nawoa add to the experience, and offer valuable configuration tips.

The Netbook Optimization Kit is available at the Mozilla Firefox Collection repository. Firefox users who do not want to install all ten add-ons individually can take a look at Massive Extender to install them all at once. (via Liliputing)

On the face of it this PC is pretty normal netbook fare with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 dual-core, between 2Gb and 4Gb of Ram, a 160Gb to 500Gb hard disk and on board graphics.

Externally there’s the now customary HDMI port and support for wireless 802.11n networking.  But what is it that will give this media centre it’s unique selling point?

 I have a small media centre under my TV through which I experience all of my television, video and music.  It’s a small Acer that’s pre-netbooks and, thus considerably more powerful than this HTPC and probably just as quiet (at least from across the room).  It’s about the same size too and most importantly wasn’t too expensive.  So what’s my point?  While I can easily see the market for large screen all-in-one HTPCs, this I feel will be a bit of a gimmick and owned only by a few people who feel it will be cool to have a lime green computer in their life, Bridget Jones springs immediately to mind.  :)

It’s a truly lovely piece of design though, nice and simple all round and easy on the eye.  In fact it’s not what I’d expect a PC to look like at all so on that score it’s going to win.  Should it make to Europe and the Americas though it’ll all come down to price on whether this one’s a winner.

Actually, I think this is a great idea. Consumers do not want multiple devices to carry and that is the main reason why convergent devices came in to existence. But even as newer devices are brought in to the market by the companies, we find ourselves owning multiple devices that we would love to carry with us. But we also want to travel light. So it’s usually a toss up between cramming the netbook, the eBook reader, the large smartphone and a PMP into your bags or carrying just your smartphone and maybe the netbook.

However, you cannot use either a netbook or a smartphone under direct sunlight and the battery life is usually not conducive to hours of reading. So Entourage’s idea is to give you something that will let you read books and surf the net at the same time.

They give you an e-Ink using eReader screen that is 9.6” diagonal (1200×825 pixels) and has all the features of an eBook reader – like zooming, taking notes directly on the book, glare free screen and the ability to read under direct sunlight. Using its various connectivity options, which I am coming to in a bit, you can choose to store your notes and journals on a server, email them to a friend or just keep them on the device.

The screen accepts stylus input, so you can open a new journal page and draw on the screen. Text can be input by hand or by Bluetooth keyboard. The e-paper is Wacom Penabled, which is how you are able to draw on it. It supports both ePub and PDF formats, so you are pretty much covered on that area.

What is does not have is an attached online store like the new Barnes & Noble’s Nook or the Amazon Kindle. But I do not see that as a deal breaker. There are enough ways to get Books these days.

The netbook side is pretty basic. It has a 10.1” color touchscreen that displays 1024×600 pixels. The two screens are connected with each other and you can view the images on your ebook in full color on the netbook screen. It has a webcam and microphone that allow you capture video, still images and audio respectively. You have the option of hooking a microphone up to it if you want better quality audio recording . It as built in speakers as well. It supports Mp3, MP4 and 3GP file formats.

You can browse the Internet, check and write emails, playback audio and video and type out long documents via Bluetooth keyboard if you so wish. It has an on-screen keyboard that you can use while chatting.

By the way, this is an Android device. No wonder they can claim so many things about the software.

Coming to connectivity, it has a lot of options for you. It has Bluetooth, 3G, WiFi b/g (no ‘n’) along with optional EVDO or HSDPA mobile modem. You can have only one type of modem. Battery life is decent for such a device – 16 hours for the ebook reader only and 6 hours for the LCD screen only. I am suspecting about 8-9 hours with heavy netbook usage from time to time and long hours of ebook reading.

The inbuilt memory is 4GB, with 3GB available to the user, but you can take it up to 32GB with the included SD card slot. There are USB 2.0 ports as well. It will start shipping from February 2010 and is priced at $490. One thing that I do not get is why they charge $40 extra for getting it in a color other than the ‘midnight blue’.

Phoenix have developed a new technology that they call Phoenix Instant Boot. The new technology cuts down the time it takes for the Bios to initialize everything to one second. This is achieved by loading devices and processes that are needed to load the operating system simultaneously. Take a look at the following video that has been posted to Youtube that showcases the boot time.

The notebook used in the demonstration video was powered by a high-performance solid state disk. It took about ten seconds to boot into Windows 7. While boot time is definitely not the only thing that counts it is nice to see some progress in this area. It is even possible, according to Phoenix, that some hardware manufacturers will offer Bios upgrades that incorporate the technology.

The web browsers of the test were: Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5.2 with and without adblock add-on, Google Chrome 2, Opera 9.64, 10.0b3 and Safari 4. Three laptops were used in the test. Two entry level Gateway laptops with AMD and Intel cpus and the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA netbook.

Gateway NV52

Gateway NV58

Asus EEE PC 1005HA

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is the web browser that drains the least amount of battery on the two entry level laptops. Most other web browsers with the exception of Safari come close to that results, especially Firefox with the adblock add-on. The benefit of the adblock add-on suggests that web advertisement does have an impact on battery usage. Safari 4 is the only web browser in the test that performed worst in all three tests.

Google Chrome 2 was first in the netbook test with all other web browsers close by except for Safari which completely drained the battery of the netbook more than two hours earlier than the other web browsers.

Even if the test needs to be replicated with a larger website sample size it seems to indicate that laptop users are better off without the Safari web browser. Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox with adblock and Google Chrome were the best performing web browsers in the test.

As the name suggest the Disney Netpal is a netbook designed specifically for children. According to Disney, the age range is between 6-12 years-old. The Netpal features an 8.9-inch LCD display, WiFi capabilities and Window’s XP Home “with over 40 parental control options.”

Since this is a netbook marketed to kids Disney took special note of durability. The device not only features a spill proof keyboard, but also ASUS ShockShield data protection which prevents loss of data should the device experience sudden shock such as a fall.

On the design front, the netbook boasts two color choices, “Princess Pink” for the ladies err girls and Magic Blue for the boys which also features “miniature Mickey Mouse icons (the former carries “beautiful pink florals”).

But what makes this little netbook shine is the work Disney has placed under the hood, geared to kids and parents alike. The Netpal features 10 customizable themes derived from popular Disney and Disney/Pixar franchises. These include, Cars, Club Penguin, Disney Classic Characters, Disney Fairies, Disney Princess, Vintage Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, WALL-E, Jonas Brothers and you guessed it Hanna Montana (where’s Lizzie McGuire?) Children will be able to use icons from these themes as email attachments such as signatures.

But Disney has gone even further with the inclusion of software built specifically for the Netpal. An example of this is the Disney Mix which, as the name suggest, is used for music and media management. There is also Disney Pix for photo customization/organization. One of the features of this application is the ability for kids to insert pictures of their faces into Bobblehead software. Another feature (via the Disney Radio Widget) allows children to stream real time music from Disney Radio as well as submit requests for songs. There are also a number of games included (racing, memory, scrapbook etc.)

So far everything that we just covered are things appealing to the kids, for the parents there are (as we mentioned earlier) over 40 control options so parents can protect their children as well as allow limited access to certain things.. For example a parent can pre-select email correspondences, determine which websites their children can visit, as well as a scheduling option so certain features can be automated such as the time of day the child is allowed to go online or play a game etc. And more importantly parents will be able to see not only what their children were doing on the computer but how long they spent.
All in all, this sounds like a perfect idea. While I do not have kids of my own, I have quite a few friends who would be interested in something like this for their son/daughter, and with a starting price of $350 this sounds pretty reasonable. As for a release date, that is set sometime in July

It is possible to write a simple batch script that can turn computer hardware off. Might be a handy for users who connect their mobile computer to a power source and use it on the road as well. They would simply turn off the unnecessary computer hardware on the road and turn it on again once it is connected to a power source again.

The creation does not require programming skills but you need to know a bit about the computer hardware installed on your system. Not all hardware should be disabled, possibilities include

• Audio Devices
• Network Adapters
• Wireless Networking Adapters
• CD, DVD and Blu-Ray drives
• Floppy drives
• webcams, card readers and other peripherals

You need three commands to work with devcon.

• devcon find
• devcon disable
• devcon enable

Start by downloading devcon from the official Microsoft website. Unpack it to a directory of your choice. It might be a good idea to put it into a directory that is listed in the system path of the operating system, e.g. /system32.

Open the Windows command line with [Windows R], [cmd], [enter].

Enter devcon find * to get a listing of all hardware devices. This can be a long list, you can use the following command to find a specific device (the command is case sensitive):

devcon find * | find "computer hardware identifier"

To find all Creative devices one could enter

devcon find * | find "Creative"

The device in the screenshot above would be the Creative Soundblaster X-FI sound card. To disable that sound card one would use the following command

devcon disable PCI\VEN_1102

It is enough to add the unique identifier for the hardware device. Here are some tips to make the most out of the find command:

Find all PCI devices

devcon find * | find "PCI"

Find all USB devices

devcon find * | find "USB"

All that needs to be done now is to collect the unique identifiers for all computer hardware devices that should be turned off at times.

Create a new text document on the computer, name it disable.bat. Right-click it, select edit and add as many devcon disable lines to it as you want.

devcon disable PCI\VEN_1102
devcon disable PCI\VEN_1317
devcon disable USB\VID_1532

Now create a second batch file, name it enable.bat and use the following code (you basically exchange disable with enable)

devcon enable PCI\VEN_1102
devcon enable PCI\VEN_1317
devcon enable USB\VID_1532

That’s a basic script. You could add echo commands to it, combine the two scripts into one and beatify it further. The basic script on the other hand does what it is supposed to do.

These things seem to happen regularly and it is not only laptops that are affected by this. We have seen malware on appear virtually anywhere where it can appear in the last years, even on music CDs from a well known company. This leads to the interesting question on what users can do to ensure that their computer system is not already infected by malicious software.

Security companies advise to scan a newly purchased computer system thoroughly before starting to work with it. They also suggest to stay offline during the procedure which can sometimes be problematic if the computer system is the only available at hand. The virus definition files of antivirus software that is already installed on the computer system is usually outdated and might not catch the virus. The same is true for antivirus software that is purchased in stores.

Security experts therefor suggest to download the virus definitions for the antivirus program from a different computer with Internet access. That’s problematic if there is only one computer system available. Solutions for this might be to visit friends, go to an Internet Cafe or computer shop to download it from there.

Which leads to the question: What do you do after buying a new computer system?

Naturally Linux was the choice. I wanted to give either Elive or gOS Cloud a try but the former required an external usb CD drive and cloud computing just doesn’t suit a fourteen year old girl. Instead I turned to Eeebuntu NBR (Net Book Remix) and I’m thrilled I did.

Why Eeebuntu?

The primary reason I went with Eeebuntu is simple: It’s based on Ubuntu which is one of the most user-friendly distributions of Linux available. Add to that the fact that Eeebuntu would take an Eee PC and make it more like an actual computer (instead of a toy good for not much more than browsing the web) and you have the ingredients for a no-brainer solution. And, of course, we are a Linux family so Windows XP was not an option.

Eeebuntu really does feel like a full-blown Linux distribution. Why? Because it is. Upon installation you have Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, Skype, a terminal, and so much more – everything you need! And Eeebuntu uses an array kernel which was designed specifically for Eee PCs. This kernel has very specific modules that help to make everything on the Eee work – and work well. From wireless to webcams, when you install Eeebuntu everything will work out of the box.

Eeebuntu is also much more efficient and responsive than the original Xandros. This is definitely a plus for a fourteen year old who has the attention span of, well, a fourteen year old. But it also allows much better use of the multi-tasking nature of Linux. You can have both Evolution (mail client) open and Firefox and not see a drop in speed.

How To Install

I would love to have to draw up all of these complicated steps for the installation of Eeebuntu (just to pat my own nerdy back). Unfortunately the installation of Eeebuntu is quite easy. Here are the steps:

1. Download the Eeebuntu image.
2. Download Unetbootin.
3. Plug in a >= 1 Gig Usb flash drive to your computer.
4. Open up Unetbootin.
5. Select Disk Image and then search for the Eeebuntu image you downloaded.
6. Click OK and Unetbootin will install Eeebuntu onto the flash drive.
7. Close Unetbootin when complete.
8. Remove the USB drive.
9. Plug the USB drive into your Eee PC.
10. Turn on your Eee PC and hit the Esc key a couple of times.
11. Select to boot from your flash drive.
12. Install Eeebuntu as you would install Ubuntu.

Done. Now you can enjoy your Eee PC as if it were a real laptop.

Final Thoughts

If you own an Eee PC and you’re either struggling with the pre-install OS or you just want more from your hardware, install Eeebuntu and free your Eee.